Wallow Fire

[elk77hunter]

With the devastating fire last summer in the beautiful White Mountains, I was curious what the winter looks like up there. Anyone that has visited, lives, or taken photos I would love to see/hear an update on that area and wildlife.

[azslim]

now its just going to be dead trees with snow on them, need to wait till spring and the green-up. It is still going to be very dangerous, there will be snags falling for years unless there is a monster wind storm through the area.

[cmc]

OR ---- they get with it so that the paperwork is clear and the green light is given for the timber companies to get in there and harvest all the chopsticks left standing.

[azslim]

Yea, I'll be holding my breath for that Chris, they'll have Anti's holding up the process the entire way, time all the studies are done what's left won't be worth dragging out of the woods.

[Brian Payne]

Not sure where you guys have been but sales have been going on since August.

 

http://www.forestbusinessnetwork.com/5800/wallow-fire-timber-for-sale-via-bidding/

[azslim]

naw, not asleep, under a rock in the desert

[cmc]

Not sure where you guys have been but sales have been going on since August.

 

Ya I've been under the same rock as AZSLIM....

 

 

Wallow fire burned 538,049 acres

 

A-S National Forests Timber and Stewardship Contracts Show that a total thus far of timber sale contracts are 10,357 acres.

 

Ya that's progress.

 

cmc

[Swivelhead]

Looks as if the only salvage going on is along the right of ways.

[Brian Payne]

The timber market is just not good enough and the infrastructure not in place for someone to setup cable logging or helicopter logging and make a profit. So anything that is near a road and within reasonable distance for a skidder can be salvaged, otherwise it is not worth it to the logging companies. As you know much of the country that the Wallow Fire burned is rough and remote and you just can't get the timber out.

[.270]

a big part of the trees aren't salvageable as far using for lumber. too badly burned and like brian said, rough country where it isn't econmical to get em out. i was impressed that they almost immediately let out timber contracts. after the rodeo fire, the huggers held it up in court until the wood turned blue and wasn't any good for lumber. the usfs didn't wait for any lawsuits, they let sold the timber and let the huggers whine. i'm sure there will be lawsuits to follow. snow is too deep right now in most places too. dead trees are only good for lumber for maybe a year before they get a fungus or mildew inside. they call it turning blue. the usfs deserves a lotta criticism at times, but timber salvage after the wallow fire ain't one of em. Lark.

[cmc]

Companies were successfully using helicopters after the rodeo/chediski fire to log the remote canyons and they do so in other states where the terrain dictates such use. I would believe in this climate they'd be happy to get the business.

 

I will pick on the Forest Service in this case as the way I see it if they'd get on the ball over the winter and get things in action the small surrounding communities like Alpine and Greer would would be inundated with loggers spending their money which would help offset the anticipated lost revenue from visitors.

 

cmc

[scoutm]

I would expect that the value of timber sales in 2002 (rodeo/chediski) was much higher than today since at that time it was the hight of the housing boom. I'm sure in that market they could make money but in this market I'm sure they can't afford to use high cost method to harvest the timber.

[Pine Donkey]

Over the last few decades, there have been so many regulations and restrictions on logging that we have effectively killed the industry in Arizona. That is itself is a contributing factor towards our huge fires in the past decade. We have forced so many of our saw mills out of business, we are not able to harvest the massive amount of timber that was burned. Where are they going to cut it up at...Springerville, Flagstaff,?

A few small operations remain like the Reidhead Brothers mill in Nutrioso, but we just don't have the capability of harvesting the current amount of lumber available before it rots.

[.270]

there are a few mills still running. there was one at the springerville airport. i think it is up and running. there is one in showlow also. reidheads have both of them. the thing about a lot of the wallow timber is that it isn't worth anything. it's burned to the point that it can't be used. what stunk about rodeo wood was that it was in fairly good shape. the fire burned through fast and didn't destroy the value. the tribe made a fortune off it. a lot of the wallow fire torched things into matchsticks. Lark.

[Jeff Welker]

The cutting that happened almost immediately (adjacent to rights-of-way) is primarily intended to remove falling tree hazards from the roadways. I did see some it being delivered to the Reidhead boys; however, there is just not that much usable timber. There are also mills in New Mexico within reasonable distance that could join the fun if larger timber sales were allowed.

 

Here is a photo of Escudilla taken shortly after the fire. The second photo was taken just the prior October.

 

 

 

As you can see, it was hit very hard. In 1951, a similar fire hit Escudilla and caused nearly the same damage. They logged-off nearly the entire mountain very quickly. That is where the road to Terry Flat and the other logging roads on Escudilla came from. Not only did it generate timber sales, jobs, local economy boost, etc; it is believed it helped the mountain flora/fauna recover much quicker that it would have if the timber had been left to rot.